First published 2018
Charlotte Holmes operates out of London under a borrowed name, posing as the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes while her capable partner Mrs. Watson keeps the enterprise running. When Charlotte's half brother vanishes without explanation, she has little time to search for him before a second crisis lands on her doorstep. Lady Ingram, long estranged from her husband, turns up dead on Lord Ingram's country estate. Scotland Yard looks at the evidence and looks at Lord Ingram, and the two conclusions feel uncomfortably close together. Charlotte knows Lord Ingram. She does not believe he is a killer. But believing and proving are different things, and Moriarty's influence has been spreading through the edges of her world for some time now. She puts on a disguise and goes looking for the truth on the estate, moving carefully among people who may be dangerous. The closer she gets to an answer, the closer she gets to Lord Ingram himself, and that proximity carries its own complications. The third book in Sherry Thomas's Victorian mystery series, following A Study in Scarlet Women and A Conspiracy in Belgravia.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, adult-fiction, british-literature, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, clever, dark, intricate, suspenseful
Tropes: disguised-identity, found-family, mystery-within-mystery, slow-burn-romance
Setting: London, Scotland Yard, Lord Ingram's country estate
Period: Victorian era, 19th century
329 pages · Paperback · Berkley
Content warnings: death, murder